Boethius while he awaited either more torture or his execution wrote his most famous work The Consolation of Philosophy. As a Christian who saw himself undeserving of his sentence received by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric I, as now former consul he pondered the common question of why do the good get punished and the evil thrive? Due to the society of the time Boethius solved the problem of evil in a way that Christians would have been comforted by this solution. He resolved the problem of evil when he spoke to Lady Philosophy. She explained it to Boethius in three points. The first point was that humans were not able to have complete knowledge of people and therefore did not have the ability to decide if a person was truly evil. The second point then stated events, that one has knowledge of, does not increase the probability that they will happen. Lady Philosophy then described that humans are mortals and that nothing can be eternally witnessed but by the eyes of God. Lady Philosophy started with explaining, “First, is human judgement so perfect that it can discern who is truly good and who is truly evil?”(Book IV, Prose 6). She stated that man was assuming that what he saw in his own eyes was evil. But in reality she continued, it was impossible to make that distinction as the only being that can truly see was Providence, which was God. She further criticized the notion when she stated, “If that were true, why do humans disagree so often, so that the same person is thought by one group to deserve the highest rewards and is thought by another group to deserve the most miserable of punishments?”(Book IV, Prose 6). Lady Philosophy meant that the idea humans having a good judgement would never work as they were never perfectly certain about what they believed. Furthermore since a full consensus was impossible, man was not able to say who was worthy of rewards and who needed to be punished. After explaining how man could not make judgement on others, Lady Philosophy continued on the ideas on the controlling of events and necessity on them. She starts by stating, “foreknowledge exists but does not impose necessity on the things it has foreknowledge of. If this were true the will of human beings would still be independant and absolutely free”(Book V, Prose 4). Lady Philosophy is explained that even if God had the knowledge of the future, it did not make one action more necessary than the other. She says later on, “For just as knowledge of things which are occurring right now before our eyes do not imply that they are happening out of necessity, so also divine foreknowledge of the things of the future imposes no necessity on those things or their outcomes”(Book V, Prose 4). This was very important as Lady Philosophy described the similarities between how humans experienced things and how God experienced things. She said that the way humans can see with their eyes something happening did not put ‘necessity’ on it. She then explained God may have foreknowledge of the future but like ‘mortal’ beings cannot make the chain of events place ‘necessity’ on any action. This notion aided in understanding why God could not control the sequences of events. Therefore God did not control what events should happen. Binding it all together she discussed eternity and how only God experienced true eternity. Lady Philosophy stated, “Eternity is the entire perfect possession of endless life at a single instant”(Book V, Prose 6). Here she defined eternity to aid in understanding what she would go explain next. She said that eternity was to experience everything and must happen at an instant in one's single life. She stated, “Since every intellect understands according to its own nature, and since God lives in an eternal present, with no past or future, his knowledge transcends the movement of time and exists only in a single unified instant”(Book V, Prose 6). Lady Philosophy placed God's point of view into an eternal like state and also that nothing else was able to claim being in eternal time. This was because unless something had been in the world since the beginning of time they had no evidence of witnessing eternity. This was intended to show man did not truly understand the reality of eternity. But this mindset combined with God experiencing everything like humans did but in an enhanced eternal states ultimately showed he was seeing everything in the present which was also an eternity. This, therefore, meant he had no control to decide how events should play out. The resolution of the problem of evil came in three parts of realization. The first was the judgement of an individual into categories of good and evil could not work as the mind of human did not hold perfect understanding of that person. Next, events do not have necessity no matter the foreknowledge one could possibly acquire. Lastly, eternity is only able to be experienced by Providence. This put together demonstrates even God does not have total power over the actions of humans since he watches them like humans do with their eyes. The Consolation of Philosophywas meant to comfort Boethius and people in undesirable places. It was an attempt to settle the problem of evil in the end depends of the individual's understanding of life.
Consolation of Philosophy
Boethius while he awaited either more torture or his execution wrote his most famous work The Consolation of Philosophy. As a Christian who saw himself undeserving of his sentence received by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric I, as now former consul he pondered the common question of why do the good get punished and the evil thrive? Due to the society of the time Boethius solved the problem of evil in a way that Christians would have been comforted by this solution. He resolved the problem of evil when he spoke to Lady Philosophy. She explained it to Boethius in three points. The first point was that humans were not able to have complete knowledge of people and therefore did not have the ability to decide if a person was truly evil. The second point then stated events, that one has knowledge of, does not increase the probability that they will happen. Lady Philosophy then described that humans are mortals and that nothing can be eternally witnessed but by the eyes of God.
Lady Philosophy started with explaining, “First, is human judgement so perfect that it can discern who is truly good and who is truly evil?”(Book IV, Prose 6). She stated that man was assuming that what he saw in his own eyes was evil. But in reality she continued, it was impossible to make that distinction as the only being that can truly see was Providence, which was God. She further criticized the notion when she stated, “If that were true, why do humans disagree so often, so that the same person is thought by one group to deserve the highest rewards and is thought by another group to deserve the most miserable of punishments?”(Book IV, Prose 6). Lady Philosophy meant that the idea humans having a good judgement would never work as they were never perfectly certain about what they believed. Furthermore since a full consensus was impossible, man was not able to say who was worthy of rewards and who needed to be punished.
After explaining how man could not make judgement on others, Lady Philosophy continued on the ideas on the controlling of events and necessity on them. She starts by stating, “foreknowledge exists but does not impose necessity on the things it has foreknowledge of. If this were true the will of human beings would still be independant and absolutely free”(Book V, Prose 4). Lady Philosophy is explained that even if God had the knowledge of the future, it did not make one action more necessary than the other. She says later on, “For just as knowledge of things which are occurring right now before our eyes do not imply that they are happening out of necessity, so also divine foreknowledge of the things of the future imposes no necessity on those things or their outcomes”(Book V, Prose 4). This was very important as Lady Philosophy described the similarities between how humans experienced things and how God experienced things. She said that the way humans can see with their eyes something happening did not put ‘necessity’ on it. She then explained God may have foreknowledge of the future but like ‘mortal’ beings cannot make the chain of events place ‘necessity’ on any action. This notion aided in understanding why God could not control the sequences of events. Therefore God did not control what events should happen. Binding it all together she discussed eternity and how only God experienced true eternity.
Lady Philosophy stated, “Eternity is the entire perfect possession of endless life at a single instant”(Book V, Prose 6). Here she defined eternity to aid in understanding what she would go explain next. She said that eternity was to experience everything and must happen at an instant in one's single life. She stated, “Since every intellect understands according to its own nature, and since God lives in an eternal present, with no past or future, his knowledge transcends the movement of time and exists only in a single unified instant”(Book V, Prose 6). Lady Philosophy placed God's point of view into an eternal like state and also that nothing else was able to claim being in eternal time. This was because unless something had been in the world since the beginning of time they had no evidence of witnessing eternity. This was intended to show man did not truly understand the reality of eternity. But this mindset combined with God experiencing everything like humans did but in an enhanced eternal states ultimately showed he was seeing everything in the present which was also an eternity. This, therefore, meant he had no control to decide how events should play out.
The resolution of the problem of evil came in three parts of realization. The first was the judgement of an individual into categories of good and evil could not work as the mind of human did not hold perfect understanding of that person. Next, events do not have necessity no matter the foreknowledge one could possibly acquire. Lastly, eternity is only able to be experienced by Providence. This put together demonstrates even God does not have total power over the actions of humans since he watches them like humans do with their eyes. The Consolation of Philosophy was meant to comfort Boethius and people in undesirable places. It was an attempt to settle the problem of evil in the end depends of the individual's understanding of life.
Prepared by Hiram Silsbee
Work Cited
Boethius, “The Consolation of Philosophy” Fordham University.